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JeffVanderLou Mullanphy Emigrant Home North St. Louis Northside Regeneration Old North St. Louis Place

"NorthSide": Phasing and Ownership

This slide shows the possible phasing of “NorthSide, ” from A (first) to L (last). This slide shows that the first projects will be “employment centers” on the vacated 22nd Street ramps west of Union Station and at the head of the new Mississippi River Bridge. McEagle estimates that the project could take as long as 15 years to reach the final phase — a conservative estimate, in my opinion.

This slide shows ownership. McEagle holdings and proposed holdings (including currently-occupied homes and businesses and the Mullanphy Emigrant Home) are in purple, with public lands in blue. Paul J. McKee, Jr. promised that no property will be taken through eminent domain for any purpose other than creation of an employment center.

More slides available online here.

Categories
JeffVanderLou North St. Louis Northside Regeneration Old North St. Louis Place

"NorthSide": Wards Involved and Approval Timeline

Reader Sara Collins shared with me her photographs of the slides shown by McEagle at last week’s public meeting at Central Baptist Church. I am sharing them to help readers who were not present get a better sense of the project scope.

This slide shows the ward boundaries and project outline:

This slide shows the proposed timeline for approval of tax increment financing and a redevelopment ordinance (a pretty fast track):

More slides available online here.

Categories
JeffVanderLou North St. Louis Old North St. Louis Place

Aldermen Talk About McEagle "Concept"

by Michael R. Allen

Yesterday the Beacon published an interesting article on the McEagle project by reporter Dale Singer. The article is relevant because it includes the most substantial remarks by aldermen April Ford-Griffin (D-5th) and Marlene Davis (D-19th) on the plan that I have read. Oddly, the article makes no mention of Alderman Kacie Starr Triplett (D-6th), whose ward includes a substantial part of the project’s southern end, where development will likely begin.

The article also mentions the date and time of the next meeting on the plans, but does not indicate that the meeting will be open to the public or the press — just a “wider audience.”

That meeting will take place at 7 p.m. on Thursday, May 21 at Central Baptist Church (2842 Washington Avenue).

Categories
North St. Louis Old North

Go, Urban Studio Cafe, Go!

by Michael R. Allen

This video from the St. Louis Beacon makes my head spin at the potential for community-building across the city. Person after person here declares their support for opening a coffee shop in Old North St. Louis, the Urban Studio Cafe. We have residents, their children, their alderwoman, their friends, the people who work in their neighborhood businesses and their fellow city residents from across the city. Each person in displaying faith that an old city neighborhood that has experienced massive population loss and disinvestment can and should support a gathering place.

Read the accompanying article to see what the cafe project is all about. This is a project that comes from the social roots of the neighborhood — roots that extend deep and wide, intertwined with roots of other neighborhoods. The Urban Studio Cafe is the sort of project that really makes a difference in sustaining a community. The storefront itself is well-suited to the cafe, and the location adjacent to Crown Candy Kitchen generates enough foot traffic that chance encounters occur frequently here. The space is cool, but people make it come to life.

Categories
Adaptive Reuse East St. Louis, Illinois Events Metro East Old North

Reconsidering St. Louis: Forming a New Future

This event showcases the work of this year’s graduating master’s degree candidates from Washington University School of Architecture. This year is special because students were allowed to choose existing buildings for projects, and a fair number of students did just that. One of the sites chosen is the National City Stockyards in East St. Louis, for which Andrew Faulkner envisioned the ruins of the pens and packing plants returning to life to be part of the 21st century food chain. Come out and see that project and more.

Categories
North St. Louis Old North

Old North Makes the News Again

KMOV took notice of the Crown Square project, which is nearing completion in Old North St. Louis. Larry Conners’ report aired this week and features great footage of the rejuvenated buildings in the center of the project, the two blocks once known as the 14th Street Mall.

Categories
North St. Louis Old North Rehabbing

Spring Rehabbing in Old North

by Michael R. Allen

Take a walk, bike ride or drive through Old North St. Louis these days and you might be tempted to ask “what recession?” The hardy north side neighborhood continues to be a construction zone, with activity all over the neighborhood.

Obviously, the Crown Square project (known to most as the “14th Street Mall” project) is moving along swiftly, with most buildings either fully rehabbed or nearing completion. Here’s a look at some of the other activity around the neighborhood.

Up at 1517 Palm Street, a mansard roof long devoid of its original dormers is being restored by a new owner. This house was once owned by the Land Reutilization Authority.

Adjacent to this house is the “three walls” house documented thoroughly by its owners on this website.

On the south end of the neighborhood, Dan Schuler is overseeing rehab of a house on the 1400 block of Monroe Street that has seen a hard life. A lot of the work is happening inside of the house, but the emerging transformation is big.

The Gallery at 1318 Hebert, a unique project involving creative reuse and new construction, is approaching completion. Watch for a post on this project soon.

Across the street from the gallery, the former Ames Elementary School kindergarten building has received the attention of a couple who have spent the last few years doing major masonry work, cornice repair and interior rehabilitation.

See all of the progress for yourself: the Old North St. Louis House & Community Tour will take place on Saturday, May 9, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Advance tickets are $10 and can be picked up in person from the ONSLRG office (2800 N. 14th Street at St. Louis Avenue) or at Crown Candy Kitchen. On the day of the tour, tickets will be available at the registration area at $12 each. As a bonus, Crown Candy once again will offer free ice cream on the day of the tour to all ticket-holders.

Categories
Events North St. Louis Old North

See Cool Rehabs Underway in Old North Tomorrow

The Rehabbers Club is hosting a great Old North tour tomorrow — these are some of the most exciting projects in the neighborhood!

Saturday, March 21 at 9:30 AM
Meet at 1303 North Market

We’ll begin at 1303 North Market, 63106, the old 6,000 SF Ford Charcoal plant currently being renovated into a live/work space by sculptor Graham Lane and his wife Viveca; next we’ll get a behind-the-scenes peek at some of the $35 million Crown Square renovations [formerly the 14th Street Mall]; and finally we’ll take a look at Ben and Heidi Sever’s original three-wall LRA project, well on it’s way to being finished. Thankfully, it has four walls now, and much more!

Join us for a very interesting morning as we see these urban transformations take shape!

Consider staying in the area for lunch at Crown Candy at 1401 St. Louis Avenue, 63106 or Cornerstone Cafe at 1436 Salisbury Street, 63107.

Categories
Historic Preservation Mid-Century Modern North St. Louis Old North Schools SLPS

Adams Recommends Keeping Ames School Open

by Michael R. Allen

St. Louis Public Schools Superintendent Kelvin Adams is recommending that Ames Visual and Performing Arts (VPA) Elementary School at 2900 Hadley Street in Old North St. Louis remain open. On Thursday, February 26, Adams recommended to the Special Administrative Board (SAB) that the Board reject the proposal from consultants MGT of America that Ames combine with Shaw VPA Elementary School at the Blewett Middle School on Cass Avenue, and the two schools’ buildings close.

While the SAB will not approve Adams’ recommendations until March 12, the shift from the consultants’ recommendations is welcome in Old North, a neighborhood that remains beset by an earlier school closure. In 2007, the Board of Education closed Webster Middle School at 2127 N. 11th Street. Webster is a large historic school whose site encompasses an entire city block. Since its closure, which came after the opening of charter school Confluence Academy in Old North, the district has not placed Webster for sale nor determined its future use. The building sits vacant in a neighborhood saddled with many large, vacant historic buildings, including the partly-stabilized Mullanphy Emigrant Home, the Meier and Pohlmann factory and the burned-out Fourth Baptist Church. The neighborhood did not need another building added to that list.

Opened in 1956, Ames is a fine mid-century building that provides a pleasant contrast with its 19th-century red-brick surroundings. Ames closes eastward views down both Wright and Sullivan streets. In 1992 under the Capital Improvement Program, Ames was expanded with a substantial addition. Later, in 2006, Ames closed for a period to be fully air-conditioned. Ames is a polling place, community meeting space and has been a source for student volunteers in neighborhood garden programs.

Categories
Demolition North St. Louis Old North St. Louis Place

Crown Mart Plaza is a Missed Opportunity

by Michael R. Allen

City Block 599 is bounded by North Fourteenth Street on the west, Cass Avenue on the south and North Florissant Avenue on the east and north. Starting with the construction of Florissant Avenue in 1935, the block was slowly cleared across the 20th and early 21st centuries. Once a dense near north residential and commercial mixed-us block, by the 1980s the block only held two buildings. By October 2005, when I took the photograph above, the block was fully clear of buildings.

Since November, the block has risen with construction again. This time, the building that will occupy City Block 599 will be a strip mall and gas station known as Crown Mart Plaza. While a strip mall is better than an empty block, and the area desperately needs stores, the site deserves something better. The photograph above shows the Mullanphy Emigrant Home (before the April 2006 storm struck) and buildings in the Old North St. Louis neighborhood in the background. This site is a visual gateway to Old North and St. Louis Place. While Tucker Boulevard and North 13th Street are currently closed, that combined major thoroughfare will open again. When it reopens, the new Mississippi River Bridge will be completed, with its ramps dropping cars on Cass Avenue just one block east. Thousands of people will pass by this block on their way to the historic neighborhoods of the near north side.

The Crown Mart Plaza is a missed opportunity to build something on the site that is an appropriate architectural entrance to great north city neighborhoods. The first impression of north city made on many people will be another gas station rather than a building that is distinct and proclaims community support for high design standards. Some day, the Emigrant home will be rehabilitated, and Old North and St. Louis Place will begin seeing infill construction. MetroLink will pass by City Block 599 on Florissant Avenue. The Crown Mart Plaza does not anticipate the changes to come, or encourage them.

Crunden Branch Library photograph by Rob Powers, Built St. Louis.

Of course, many of us anticipated such a future for the block when the former Crunden Branch Library, owned by the city’s Land Reutilization, abruptly disappeared in August 2005. Students at Washington University recently had submitted a nomination to the National Register of Historic Places of the landmark building when the city’s Building Division wrecked the Crunden Library building. Built in 1909 and designed by Eames and Young, the Crunden Branch Library served the educational needs of area residents until 1954, when the branch moved west and the building was remodeled for use by Pulaski Bank. This building signaled the greatness of its surrounding neighborhoods, and its loss was a huge blow to the Cass Avenue street scape.

Just north of the Crunden Branch Library on Fourteenth Street stood a bus maintenance garage that dated to the 1930s. This building was a utilitarian building, and not an outstanding work of architecture, but a building that could have been adapted to many uses — including a retail strip. Since the land between this building and North Florissant was vacant, its footprint is remarkably similar to that proposed for Crown Mart Plaza.

The bus garage was destroyed in a large fire on September 15, 2005, so soon after the Crunden Library demolition that bits of terra cotta from the old library still littered the straw-covered earth. Since that fire and the garage’s subsequent demolition, City Block 599 has stood vacant as rumors of retail development have swirled. If only the planned retail use could have aligned with an effort to improve the architectural character of Cass and North Florissant avenues, the tone for great development on these streets could have been set.